A Whirlwind of a Week

I just checked and I guess it's been a week since we've posted. We've had a chance to see lots of friends and family while in the Chicago area and also in Des Moines, where we still are staying until tomorrow afternoon.

Stephen did absolutely wonderfully with my parents when we left him there in order to go to see Wicked in the city. The show was enjoyable, as was our dinner at Reza's. We stayed at a nice hotel in Burr Ridge - about halfway between the city and my parents' place. Stephen has only recently been sleeping through the night, and it was a relief that he slept all night - 11.5 hours - while we were gone. It made for a much happier little boy and some well-rested grandparents.

We went back to Champaign for Monday and Tuesday because Ryan needed to get a few hours of recording done. He also had a limo meeting on Tuesday evening that necessitated us staying in town until 9 p.m. We also had a friend who we wanted to see and he was only available for breakfast in Des Moines on Wednesday morning. We got into grandma and grandpa Leatherman's at 2:45 a.m. and were up again at 6 for breakfast. Thankfully, the grandparents were eager and able to take care of Stephen a little more so we could snooze some more.

We had a great Thanksgiving meal at Dan and Sheila's in Knoxville. Stephen got along just fine with our cousins Claire and Anna. He didn't like not being able to eat the pumpkin pie, but with his fussy eating habits of late, we really didn't have a choice.

Yesterday we left him with the grandparents and aunt Care for much of the day. Though he still doesn't appreciate me leaving, he did very well for all of them. Ryan and I got to enjoy a nice lunch with John and then saw some friends at Rock Bottom in the evening.

Today we've run around town to see more friends - even Stephen sure enjoyed Max, Ian, Joshua, Luke, Porter, Foster, Rede, and Laurie. :)

I really hope our return trip goes well. It's risky since Stephen will be awake for about 80% of it. I'm sure we can all tough it out but I sure appreciate it when he isn't crying a lot!